


call off the dogs

by TheBrokaryotes



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Implied Murder, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Murder, just straight up angst, thanks @ eliot moss, there was no..........need for this at all??, this was a vent fic and nothing else
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-25
Updated: 2017-05-25
Packaged: 2018-11-04 16:02:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10994256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBrokaryotes/pseuds/TheBrokaryotes
Summary: We found himin the woods





	call off the dogs

**Author's Note:**

> and so once again eliot moss decides to ruin my goddamn night  
> inspired by 'without the lights' --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmnXGvXYpKg

Red and blue flash across the darkness, membranes of light that flicker through the tall swaying branches of the trees. Keith’s blood pounds in his ears, body trembling and numb. The siren’s wail is drowned out by his own heartbeat, his own ragged breath which he attempts vainly to control by pressing his palm into his abdomen.

 _We found him,_ the message echoes over the radio. The confines of the back of the squad car bars Keith’s conscious within his own mind, his senses dulled and heightened all at once. _In the woods…_

Gravel churns under squealing rubber as the vehicle lurches too hard around a corner. Far away, the resolute barking of dogs sounds off. Keith’s hands twitch, veins ice cold as they slice his own hot blood through his body.

He can’t get out of the car until the officer at the wheel exits and lets him out around the side. The moment the damp air, laced with salty humidity and sharp fear, reaches Keith’s nose, he’s out, stumbling over his own feet as he struggles to gain purchase on the ground. The earth lurches up to meet him, but he rejects it, palm pressing on the mulch and soil to propel him upright and forward as he streaks towards the rest of the commotion. A voice calls out behind him, commanding, demanding.

Weightless and flighty, he tears through the lights that blind him, breaths dragging out of his body. He runs, crying out a single syllable like an incantation, an insane prayer. Wet heat pours over his cheeks. His eyes sting, his muscles strain to keep him in motion. A pinprick of a flashlight flickers into his vision, and in the chaos he left behind, he hears the crackle of radio static followed by a distinctly authoritative voice. 

_Call off the dogs._

The steady forest floor threatens to crumble underfoot, but Keith rights himself and continues on, that beacon he calls out for growing closer and closer. He can see him, can see him with blood running down his face, eyes wide and glassy blue, skies stuck in shattered crystal balls. He strides forward, emotionless. Coldness settles in Keith’s stomach, sloshing around wildly as he runs. He calls out again, voice cracking under the pressure of just a single word.

Lance’s gaze reaches far beyond this plane, sees somewhere further than the lights can reach. Into the dark, his vision tunnels. Keith skitters to a halt as an unfamiliar hand reaches out from his left to stave him off.

 _Sir,_ he hears, his voice overlapping with its commanding tone. _Sir, please, step away._

Keith doesn’t want to acquiesce. He has no desire to, he cannot. Not while Lance is feet away from him. _Please,_ he begs, _please, please, God, just let me go to him—_

The world dims, reality fracturing as Lance’s figure ghosts past him, phasing through him. Keith freezes, breath cold in his lungs. He cranes his neck around, met with nothing but the spidery fractals of pulsating lights on his retinas. Lance is nowhere in sight, his memory past this present, his entity reduced to a figment.

Mechanically, Keith returns his attention forward, lurching over the arm that presses into him, pushes his realizations into the light. He grabs onto it, clawing forward at the air, trying pull the memories back to the here and now, trying to deny. The effort to keep his breath going is too much. His chest hurts, his throat is tight. _Call off the dogs. We found him._

He can see Lance, eyes wide and glassy blue, skies stuck in shattered crystal balls. His gaze reaches far beyond this plane, sees somewhere further than the lights can reach. His lithe form lies crumpled amidst the leaves, mud caked along his forearm and his jacket darkened with his own blood. He’s frozen in astonishment, lips parted as if in mid-sentence, face mapped with the red and blue lights that pulsate yards away.

_Sir, please. Don’t look._

Keith cannot acquiesce. He looks, he looks, his eyes soak up the mental image like water into a sponge. _Lance._

 _Call off the dogs,_ they echo as he’s escorted away. He watches them crowd Lance, watches him disappear behind the barricade of warm bodies. It’s the last time he’ll ever see those eyes again.

_We found him in the woods._


End file.
